By Lei Yang

BEIRUT, May 8 -- The 19th Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent to Lebanon started the COVID-19 vaccination for peacekeepers in Lebanon entrusted by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), on May 6, local time. A total of 260 doses were given on the first day, and no adverse reactions occurred.

The spread of COVID-19 in Lebanon is still severe at present, posing grim security challenges to peacekeeping operations. To effectively help UNIFIL fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese medical peacekeepers have carried out nucleic acid testing and vaccination in good order.

Since the recipients are from different countries and in different physical conditions, the Chinese medical contingent specially formulated treatment measures for adverse reactions and strengthened the monitoring of paradoxical reactions to ensure the safety of vaccination.

According to the head nurse Zhang He, the recipients need to take pre-vaccination health registration, check body temperature, identity information and blood pressure at the registration site. Then they will enter the vaccination area to get vaccinated, and they are allowed to leave 15 to 30 minutes later if they have no adverse reactions.

It is learnt that more than 2,000 UNIFIL troops will go to the camp of the Chinese peacekeeping medical contingent in southern Lebanon to get inoculation of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of June this year.